OS 10.5 - Frustrations with TAB

There are a few things about the way the TAB key functions that are REALLY bothersome. I'm hoping that someone knows how I can fix it. OS x.5 on Macbook pro

1. When in a web form and using tab to move between items on the form, using the tab key will jump the cursor to the URL field of the browser instead of selecting the dropdown field. In the OTHER OS, hitting tab will even select the Submit buttons or will select check boxes, etc, making it easy to hit spacebar to check the item.
2. In wikispaces, for example, when I'm in a numbered or bulleted list I can hit tab to indent, but I cannot hit shift-tab to outdent. For example, i'm in item 7 and hit tab - I get item 7.1 under it. But, I'm not able to get back out to the 7 level to be able to get an 8.

Is this just the way it works or is there a setting I can change to get it to work the correct way?